The City on the Edge of Forever
The City on the Edge of Forever was an episode of the original series of , first broadcast on April 6, 1967. It was written by noted science-fiction author Harlan Ellison, who remains annoyed and bitter to this day at Gene Roddenberry's rewritten version that was filmed instead. His original script is now available in book form.Warning: Plot details follow.
In the filmed version, the USS Enterprise is experiencing turbulence in time while orbiting a strange planet. When Helmsman Hikaru Sulu is seriously injured, Doctor Leonard McCoy arrives and treats him with a careful dose of Cordozine, a strong heart stimulant. Unfortunately, the ship hits another wave of turbulence and during the shaking, McCoy accidentally injects an a massive amount of the stimulant into himself. This overdose enduces a traumatic case of violent paranoia in McCoy who begins to run wild through the ship while the crew attempts to capture him.
In the chase, McCoy beams down to the planet and a landing party which includes Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock follows him in pursuit. The party discovers the Guardian of Forever, a sentient machine in the form of a portal to other times. Leonard McCoy impulsively goes through this portal, and the crew find themselves cut off from the starship. Mr. Spock's tricorder suggests that the starship no longer exists, and they deduce that McCoy has interfered with the past somehow. Kirk and Spock go through the portal themselves, and search for McCoy in 1930s America.
Using the recordings from the Guardian, they conclude that the specific interference would be McCoy saving the life of Edith Keeler (played by Joan Collins) - as this would apparently then lead to her continuing anti-war activism, leading to a delayed United States entry into World War II and hence a Nazi Germany victory. Kirk, having fallen in love with her in the meantime, prevents McCoy from doing so, and they return home.
In the original script, Crewman Beckwith, a drug dealer selling the illegal "Jewels of Sound," kills Crewman LeBeque after he threatens to expose Beckwith's activities. After escaping to the planet's surface, with the Captain and Mr. Spock close on his heels, he enters the Guardians of Forever time portal to escape. The time changes he effects cause the Enterprise to become a pirate vessel.
The rest of the show is roughly the same (with Keeler being the focus of the time travel, Kirk's growing love for her), but with more emphasis on Kirk and Spock spying on Keeler, waiting for Beckwith to find her.
The ending has Backwith being captured, and Edith Keeler being hit by a truck in a fatal vehicle accident. But in this version, it is Spock who must hold the Captain back, as he has fallen completely in love with her.
With the timeline set right, Beckwith attempts to escape again, but the Guardians of Forever have set a trap for him - he finds himself in an exploding supernova, and just before he dies a fiery death, is pulled backwards in time and forced to relive his death again and again.
A later draft, written with Ellison's pseudonym "Cordwainer Bird" had McCoy bitten by a toxic animal, which caused him to go insane and beam down to the Guardian's planet.
The final draft as seen on television was rewritten by DC Fontana, although it had Gene Roddenberry's name on it
The portal is revisited in the episode Yesteryear, and numerous books.
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